The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) was created by the Department ofTransportation Act of 1966. It is one of ten agencies within the U.S. Department ofTransportation concerned with intermodal transportation. FRA promotes safe,environmentally sound, successful railroad transportation to meet the needs of all customers today and tomorrow.

FRA's Office of Railroad Safety promotes and regulates safety throughout the Nation's railroad industry. The office executes its regulatory and inspection responsibilities through a diverse staff of railroad safety experts.

The Federal Railroad Administration is responsible for working with stakeholders to develop cohesive goals and policies for maintaining and improving the U.S. freight and passenger rail networks. This section covers various efforts across America and the world in helping to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient rail transportation.

FRA Research & Development (R&D) projects contribute to the FRA's safety regulatory processes, to railroad suppliers, to railroads involved in the transportation of freight, intercity passengers, commuters, and to railroad employees and their labor organizations.

In this section, we provide descriptions and comprehensive, official sources for FRA's regulations (also called rules), selected legislation, as well as policy and guidance documents. Additionally, you will find current topics of high interest or significant impact to Congress, railroads, employees, labor, public interest groups and other stakeholders.

FRA supports passenger and freight railroading through a variety of competitive grant, dedicated grant, and loan programs to develop safety improvements, relieve congestion, and encourage the expansion and upgrade of passenger and freight rail infrastructure and services. FRA also provides training and technical assistance to grantees and stakeholders.

Welcome to FRA’s FY14 Grant Application Solicitation homepage. The FRA recently issued a Notice of Funding Availability to solicit applications for eligible intercity passenger rail grade crossing improvement projects, positive train control (PTC) implementation projects, and Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan (PRCIP) projects. At least $36 million is available for awards under this solicitation. This website is intended to provide applicants with required application materials and additional guidance on topics referenced in the NOFA.

Applications for funding under this solicitation are due no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT, September 15, 2014, and must be submitted via Grants.gov.

The FRA recommends applicants read the NOFA in its entirety prior to preparing application materials. The NOFA specifies several administrative prerequisites that applicants must comply with in order to submit an application. Additionally, the NOFA specifies application requirements that may differ depending on the type of project and funding sought.

Note: In addition to the funding opportunities described in the FY14 Grant NOFA, the FRA is soliciting statements of interest from groups of states that wish to participate in an FRA-led planning process for multi-state passenger rail networks. The FRA will be releasing additional information on this FRA-led planning process in the near future.

Application Checklist

The following checklist outlines the application materials required to be submitted for each of the three eligible project types. The instructions for completing the Project Narrative is contained in the NOFA; the required forms and additional instructions for all other application materials can be downloaded by clicking each of the corresponding required documents below. Applicants must submit all required documents for the respective project type.

Additional Resources for Applicants

Applicants are encouraged to review the following resource documents (hyperlinked below), which are intended to provide (1) additional instructions to assist in the preparation of applications, and (2) an overview of certain FRA grant administration requirements (should an application be selected for award).

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Compliance (all applicants)– This document provides a description of FRA’s standard grant provisions related to compliance with NEPA. Applicants and grantees under FRA’s financial assistance programs are encouraged to contact FRA and obtain preliminary direction regarding the appropriate NEPA class of action and required environmental documentation. Generally, projects will be ineligible to receive funding if they have begun construction activities prior to the applicant/grantee receiving written approval from FRA that all environmental and historical analyses have been completed.

TIGER Benefit-Cost Analysis Resource Guide (all applicants) – This resource guide provides recommended values for applicants to use in monetizing benefits and costs of proposed projects. The FRA intends to award funds to projects that achieve the maximum public benefits possible. Analysis provided by applicants that quantifies the monetary value (whenever possible) of the anticipated public benefits of the proposed project will be particularly relevant to the FRA in evaluating applications. This resource guide was initially developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation for use in the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Program. Only Sections 1 and 2 of the resource guide are applicable to the FRA FY14 Grant Application Solicitation – to avoid confusion, Section 3 (which is referenced on the first page) has been removed from the document.

PTC Research and Development Focus Areas (PTC applicants only)– This document provides additional information on the three PTC issues identified in the NOFA for which FRA is particularly interested in advancing research and development: cybersecurity and wireless communications security, back-office reliability, and deployment of Interoperable Train Control Messaging (ITCM/ITCSM) shared networks for short lines and commuter railroads. As stated in the NOFA, these topics represent suggested areas of interest by FRA, and any otherwise eligible applications meeting the criteria contained in the NOFA will be evaluated and considered for award.

GradeDec Overview (grade crossing applicants only) – This link connects to FRA’s GradeDec website, where applicants can learn more about FRA’s highway-rail grade crossing investment analysis tool. As stated in the NOFA, FRA intends to analyze all grade crossing applications in GradeDec to support the evaluation process.